Slammin’ with Tony

The new album from former Afghan Whigs crooner Greg Dulli grew out of a feeling of sadness and loss, writes Steve Tauschke.
Although lumped in with the early-’90s grunge crowd – the band were signed to Seattle’s Sub Pop label – Cincinatti cult group the Afghan Whigs will be remembered as stylish noir-rockers at their best on sophisticated classics such as Congregation (1992) and Gentlemen (1994).

But for former Whigs singer Greg Dulli, 14 years and 1500 shows fronting the band was more a stormy than soulful experience. Behind the scenes lurked a cocktail of all-night benders, ugly brawls and, somewhere in between, a drunken duet with the late Dodi Fayed.

“I actually worked for Dodi Fayed,” reveals a charming Dulli, 38, on the phone from his home town of Los Angeles. “My roommate Tracey was having an affair with Dodi back in ’91 or ’92 and she wound up as his personal assistant. So I got to do some odd jobs and read scripts for him. We duetted on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at his home in Beverley Hills and it was f—ing horrible. He was a terrible singer.”

So is it true that in those wild days you were once body-slammed by Tony Curtis?

“Yeah, I was at an Easter egg hunt at one of Dodi’s parties at the Bel Air Hotel,” explains Dulli, “and there was $1000 in one of the plastic Easter eggs and the rest had a shot of tequila in them. I had about five shots in me and I remember reaching under this hedge for an egg when I got hit from the side and flew over the hedge. I looked up to see who did it to me and it was f—in’ Tony Curtis, him and his facelift. I’m like, ‘Dude, I need that money. I work in a record store, you f—ed Marilyn Monroe, OK!'”

Although the Whigs split amicably three years ago (“We were four different guys in four different states”), Dulli’s entrancing voice continues to smoulder with his new project, the Twilight Singers. After debuting the collective with 2000’s Fila Brazillia-produced Twilight, he’s back with Blackberry Belle, a cathartic work that was rewritten following the dual shock of a California earthquake and the sudden death of close friend and film director Ted Demme.

“We played basketball together three times a week and he was kind of like my big brother,” says Dulli. “I basically had an album done at that time, but I was so saddened and destroyed by his loss that I put it to the side and set about writing a record that more reflected my feelings about life and that situation. The original record felt like it came from another world.”

Featuring a cast of more than 20 musicians – from Mark Lanegan to former Prince sidekick Appolonia – Blackberry Belle was assembled over 13 months in LA and New Orleans’ French quarter, whose rich musical history and decadent reputation appealed to the singer’s creative urge.

“Music is just given to you at birth down there. People are encouraged to play. You just never don’t hear music; even in the middle of the night, somebody’s always playing something, at funerals, weddings, everything. There are 365 days in the year and there are 375 official parties in New Orleans every year. You do the math!”